The present disclosure generally relates to print systems and methods for operating such systems. More specifically, the present disclosure relates to methods and systems for assessing color gamut requirements for the combination of a print job and a printing device.
Conventionally, print operations printing a full range of colors have been performed using a four-color printing technology that uses three primary ink colors—cyan, magenta, and yellow—plus black (abbreviated as CMYK). More recently, five or more color (“high fidelity”) printing technologies have been introduced to provide a larger and more vibrant color gamut. An exemplary high fidelity printing technology is Pantone's Hexachrome system, which adds orange and green to the traditional CMYK.
Color printing can also use “spot color” inks alone or in combination with one of the above described printing methods. Spot color inks are specific color formulations that are printed alone, rather than mixed to produce various hues and shades. The range of available spot color inks is nearly unlimited. Spot color inks can be used to print colors from subtle pastels to fluorescent greens and oranges to metallic silvers, golds and other finishes.
As digital color printing increasingly becomes a commodity, print shop operators and other print providers have sought to determine ways to grow revenue and reduce costs. One way to increase revenue is to perform print jobs having high fidelity color requirements. A print provider can usually charge a customer more for a high fidelity color print job because of the superior color rendition.
In order to reduce costs, print providers desire to minimize the use of high fidelity color printing devices, particularly 6+ color printing devices, whenever possible because of the increased operating costs over other printing devices. However, it is difficult to determine whether an incoming high fidelity print job will actually benefit from being printed on a 6 color printing device. In some cases, a high fidelity print job printed on a 6 color printing device will not look significantly better than the same print job printed on a 4 color or 5 color printing device. As such, potential profit is lost when the high fidelity print job is automatically processed using a 6 color printing device.